The present invention relates to the method of producing an image, and more particularly to an improvement in such a method in the situation in which the method of producing the image produces an image that presents thickness such that a shadowing effect is produced.
Certain methods of producing images produce an image that presents thickness. Whatever the way in which the image is produced, when such an image is observed, it is usually observed under multidirectional illumination. For an image that is defined in thickness, this has the harmful effect of each pixel projecting a shadow as a function of the opacity of that pixel onto neighboring pixels. The extent of the neighborhood that is affected in this way depends on the thickness of the pixels.
Such a shadowing effect modifies the image actually made in comparison with a desired target image, in that the image actually made is darker and fuzzier than the target image.
It may be observed that this phenomenon of harmful shadowing does not exist for an image printed in conventional manner. Specifically, the depth or thickness of printing ink is sufficiently negligible compared with the transverse dimensions of a pixel to ensure that no shadowing can occur, or at least that no shadowing is perceptible.
Furthermore, when printing by laser, diffusion of the laser in the substrate-forming material can also lead to harmful effects as described below, which effects should desirably be corrected when printing an image by laser.